Danan was about to ask how she knew him, but before he could open his mouth, several men ran up to them in a hurry."Chief, we were looking for you!" The man in the front looked fl.u.s.tered as he approached them.
The woman, Dewi Sasmaya, waited until the men got closer before she asked them unhurriedly. "What happened?"
"There"s a problem in the west wing. Sir Guntur is going berserk again!" The man said hastily in a panic.
A frown appeared on the Chief"s face. "Let"s go. Explain to me about the situation on our way there." She said as she started walking. But, she had just taken three steps when she stopped and looked at Danan"s direction. "Why aren"t you moving?"
Danan blinked his eyes, but again, he didn"t say anything and moved to follow their steps. He observed the behavior of the men in front of him. They didn"t ask her who he was, and let him follow them. It could only mean one thing.
It was not the first time and perhaps not the second or third time, for their Chief to return to the village with a ghost or soul tailing behind her.
Danan frowned. Was it really okay for him to follow her?
They walked towards the west wing hurriedly, but instead looking like a bunch of messy people, they looked somehow overbearing. Even though Danan could feel their hasty paces, he could not ignore the fact that their steps were firm and strong, as if it was perfectly common for them to walk that way. No one was left behind as they marched in a perfect harmony.
Except Danan who struggled not to be left behind too far. It was a good thing he was a ghost already since he didn"t need to catch for breath.
In no time, they arrived at the gate of west wing. As soon as he stepped inside, Danan felt a pressure he had never felt during his life. It was as if he was walking in a thick concentrate of air, it felt stuffy and overbearing. The feeling was almost the same when he climbed a mountain with his brother when they were younger. As they got closer to the peak, he could feel the pressure in his lungs, but it felt refres.h.i.+ng when they stopped. This pressure, however, was different.
He didn"t feel better even after he stopped walking and rearranged himself. It was strange, he didn"t need to breath, so why did he feel stuffy inside?
The pressure made him feel a bit of reverence, but for whom, he didn"t know. It was also a kind of pressure where he entered the territory of someone powerful. He couldn"t help but be a good boy and behave himself.
After deciding that he would be fine, he continued his steps before he lost sight of the Chief and the men. They crossed the building and headed towards the backyard. A thundering shout made Danan stopped in his track while covering his poor ears.
"SCRAM, YOU IMBECILES! HOW DARE YOU STILL LINGER IN FRONT OF ME! DO YOU TAKE ME AS DEAF WHEN YOU BRATS TALKED BEHIND MY BACK?!"
It was clear the shout was filled with anger and displeasure. Danan wondered, how great was this man to call ghosts as imbeciles? Somehow he wondered, was he also a wandering soul like him?
As Danan was still pondering over it, he didn"t notice a group of ghosts like him were running towards him like they were being hunted down by ghost busters.
"The old man is going crazy again. I wonder who provoked him this time?"
Danan heard one of them spoke as they ran pa.s.sed by him.
"Who cares? Just run away for now. We all know how scary he is when he goes berserk like that." The other ghost said.
Soon, the backyard was empty, leaving the Chief and her men as well as Danan stood upright near one of the multipurpose building. Danan tried to look into it and saw a man was sitting crossed-legs on a small stage.
He was a human! Wow!
Danan had the urge to clap his hands, but decided to go against it since he notice how dark the man"s expression was. Bad news, he thought.
"Old man..." The Chief greeted as she walked into the building. The men were all left behind, standing in front of the building with Danan.
"What?" The man whose named was Guntur Bharata glared at her, but didn"t say anything else.
"Who provoked you this time, old man?" Dewi Sasmaya asked casually while sitting next to him.
"Those stupid ghosts, of course. I gave them homework to do at full moon which was last night, but they didn"t turn their homework today! But, what made me furious was the fact they tried to outsmart me with their amateur reasons. Trying to twist the truth, huh? Very good! I"ll let them know that cunning and stupid scheming were rejected in my cla.s.s!"
"They are so stupid I bet they were also stupid, stupid enough to let them die young like that! Not to mention the selection, but even to let them join the test is an embarra.s.sment for me!" Sir Guntur gritted his teeth why his hands balled into fists.
"Then, why don"t you find another student to teach?" Dewi Sasmaya casually stated her opinion.
"Woman, you know very well they are the only students here. Which student could I train more?" He sounded dejected and helpless with a hint of anger in his voice.
"What about him?" Danan flinched as he saw the Chief was nodding at him. If he could, he would break into cold sweat when the man finally looked at him.
"Where did you find this unlucky soul?" Sir Guntur asked as he got up and walked towards Danan while staring at him closely.
"He wandered in the forest this morning. So I picked him up and brought him here." The Chief answered.
Danan suppressed the uncomfortable feeling inside him as the man kept staring at him. He straightened his back and tried to think of something else as the man drew closer and closer to him.
"Hey, Chief! Why are you bringing a troublesome kid back? An unlucky soul who got murdered by his own brother, and a very fresh soul, I could say. Let me guess, last night? You dealt with it pretty well, huh?" Sir Guntur said with a smirk after he shouted at the Chief.
"Can"t help it, though. Your presence could make people crazy. It could be him died, instead of you. It is my first time seeing chaotic aura in the right vessel. No wonder he would kill you without batting an eyelid."